The freshman roommate of Brett Kavanaugh says the embattled U.S. Supreme court nominee lied to Congress “baldly, without reservation” about the extent of his college drinking and meaning of code words for sexual behavior.

“His willingness to lie to avoid embarrassment throws doubt on his denial about the larger questions of sexual assault,” James Roche, a Yale University graduate and CEO of a San Mateo software company, wrote in an essay for Slate Magazine on Wednesday.

While he said he didn’t know whether Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Palo Alto professor Christine Blasey Ford at a high school party, and didn’t witness Kavanaugh expose himself to fellow Yale student Debbie Ramirez, “I can say he lied under oath.”

Roche said he was never interviewed this week by the FBI, despite the fact he told the New Yorker last month that Kavanaugh was “frequently, incoherently drunk.” .

On Thursday, GOP swing votes Sens. Jeff Flakes and Susan Collins expressed satisfaction with the thoroughness of the newly-released FBI report, which apparently found no corroboration of the claims of Blasey Ford or Ramirez.

Not only did Kavanaugh lie about the extent of his drinking, Roche wrote, but he also falsely testified “that ‘boofing’ was farting and “Devil’s Triangle’ was a drinking game.” Both are sexual references, he said, “I know this because I heard Brett and his friends using the these terms on multiple occasions.”

Kavanaugh lied, Roche wrote, because the truth would have bolstered the credibility of the women.

“In this climate, had he simply said, ‘I don’t remember,’ or even ‘If I did these things in my youth I am sorry,’ he might have sailed through the confirmation process,” Roche wrote. “But he lied, under oath, like it was nothing.”

Julia Prodis Sulek has been a general assignment reporter for the Bay Area News Group, based in San Jose, her hometown, since the late 1990s. She has covered everything from plane crashes to presidential campaigns, murder trials to immigration debates. Her specialty is narrative storytelling.

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